Recently, more attention is given to a cutaneous sensation, i.e., a tactile sensation, as a potential communication channel in a human body suitable for recognizing information from the outer world. The propagation of a stimulus through a tactile sensation in a human body may be up to 20 milliseconds which is five times faster than that of a stimulus through a visual sense. In spite of this outstanding advantage, there may be only a few ways of processing information recognized through tactile sensation in standardized manners in comparison with those of information recognized through visual and auditory senses. For this reason, applying tactile sensations to a user interfacing field may be less active than applying visual and auditory senses to that field.
In the realities of life, humans may recognize information from the outer world through the five senses, such as through visual senses, auditory senses, tactile sensation, senses of taste and olfactory senses. Nowadays, there are many attempts to apply the five senses of humans to a user interface between humans and computerized or network-based arrangements. Among such attempts, haptic technology may have the most prominent applicability to a user interface because tactile sensations enable a bidirectional communication between humans and computerized or network-based arrangements.
Meanwhile, a remote control capable of implementing multiple functions has emerged from the inconveniences in controlling various appliances, such as television sets, video record players, audio components, personal computers and the like, by using control devices dedicated thereto. The various appliances may be easily plugged into a conventional home or local network. On account of the emergence of such a remote control, various appliances may be activated and operated under the control of one controlling source. In order to realize such a remote control having a slim size, an integrated control board has been developed. This multifunctional remote control, however, may have intrinsic disadvantages due to having a plurality of buttons for use in instructing and performing multiple functions on appliances and the increase in physical size for accommodating a plurality of buttons.
As display technology progresses, a touch screen or touch panel has been introduced to address the mentioned disadvantages. Unfortunately, another disadvantage may exist due to the downsizing limitation of buttons, which should be displayed as graphical objects on the touch screen in finger-pressable sizes, for use in functions requiring fine adjustments, e.g., volume, luminance and the like.